YouGov/Times - CON 48, LAB 24, LD 12, UKIP 7

The Times's first YouGov poll since the election was called has topline figures of CON 48%(+4), LAB 24%(+1), LDEM 12%(nc), UKIP 7%(-3). The Conservative lead of twenty-four points is the highest they've recorded from YouGov since way back in 2008. In terms of a starting position for an election campaign this is a huge gap - to put it in context, when the 1997 election was called, polls in the first week put Labour between 21 and 29 points ahead of the Tories. The Tory lead now isn't as large as Blair's huge Labour lead then... but you can see we're in the same sort of territory.

More interesting to me is that UKIP score - the lowest YouGov have shown since 2013. This echoes the ICM flash poll yesterday, which also also had UKIP dropping sharply to a record low. While I'd still like to see it repeated in other polls before assuming too much, it looks distinctly as if an actual election being called has led to some people who were saying they would have voted UKIP switching to the Tories. Perhaps it's the sudden difference between a theoretical election that could be three years away, and thinking about what they might do in an election just seven weeks away.